Mourningwood

Your search for allies has brought you to Mourningwood (heh heh). On your right you should pass a chest with a Health Potion inside. Cross the bridge and continue straight for a Dig Spot and another chest with some sellable items inside.

Before going down the ramp, search the ridge above the path leading down for a 10 Silver Key Chest. You should have enough Silver Keys for this now, and if you don't, head to our Keys and Collectibles section to catch up! Inside you'll find a Legendary Weapon, sweet!

Down the sloping path you'll pass under the bridge and encounter a hard-to-miss chest with another Legendary Weapon inside, the Bonesmasher. Equip this now by entering the Sanctuary. This weapon is especially useful against Hollow Men, and you'll be seeing plenty of Hollow Men shortly.

Unlike your Hero Weapons, Legendary Weapons each have three upgrades you can get by performing certain tasks. Examine the Bonesmasher in the Sanctuary by looking at it and pressing Y and you will see its three upgrades and their requirements. Time to kill some Hollow Men!

Enter the fort and listen to the conversation. Ben Finn will then head up to the mortar on the fort wall. As he does, grab any potions you may want at the shop in the fort (we recommend a few Slow Time and Health Potions on hand at ALL TIMES).

Ben Finn will then direct you to use the Mortar, a large Hollow-Man-shattering cannon. Al you have to do is point and fire. Aim the circle over the two Scarecrows and press A to fire a shot.

The resulting explosion is a bit slow, so moving targets will be tougher to hit. Soon you will be swarmed by Hollow Men as they stream down the hill towards the fort. Your job is to destroy as many of them as possible. This is much easier to do with the slow-firing cannon when they appear in groups of four or more.

Always aim for groups before stragglers. There's no other trick to this area. You just keep firing as close as you can to groups of Hollow Men and pick off stragglers when you can.

Soon you will be called away to defend the back door of the fort. Vault off the edge of the wall and run into the glowing circle. Immediately charge a magic attack and unleash it. Just doing this repeatedly is a great way to destroy Hollow Men. You should throw in some flourishes with your Bonesmasher pistol to begin inching towards its upgrades as well.

Boss: Lieutenant Simmons

The undead Simmons appears after you destroy a few dozen Hollow Men. He'll teleport after taking some damage and repeatedly summon groups of Hollow Men. His attacks can mostly be avoided by rolling around. You'll want to implement some potions in this fight to make things faster. Slow time and especially Summon Creatures will come in handy.

Try to alternate wide area magic attacks, which take out the smaller Hollow Men, with charged attacks you send right at Simmons. Flourish attacks from the Bonesmasher are especially effective as well. If you get a flourish "close-up shot." you can still fire shots while time slows. Use this to your advantage.

Simmons will occasionally glow red or blue in his chest and send a magic attack your way. You can roll to avoid these, but they will do some serious damage if they connect. Don't be afraid to heal up if you need to, it's better than starting the fight over!

After the battle, move to leave the fort and you'll be told to sign a promise to put Major Swift in your royal army. After this you get to access the Road to Rule once again.

This time, bring your ranged weapon up to date so you can begin using the Bonesmasher more. You'll also want to upgrade your magic, but you can still hold off on your Melee weapon for now. Purchase these -- but you'll only need the last two if you are playing as an evil character:

Magic Level 3

Ranged Level 3

Bully Expression Pack

Theft Pack

Returned to the real world you'll receive Simmons' Head as a trophy for your gallery and Sir Walter will beckon you to Bowerstone Industrial. You need only run through the Mourningwood marshes to get there, but it's worth stopping for some treasure along the way.

Run up the hill from the mortar field and stick to the left to find an open crypt with a chest inside. You can score a Health Potion here.

Starting at the fort, run up the hill you defended with the mortar cannon and stick to the right side. You should spot a Silver Key in a small enclosure before you reach the gravestones. If its blocked in, you'll need to bust it out with a melee weapon or a Fireball spell.

Gnome (Mourningwood, 1/3)

Starting at the fort, run up the hill you defended with the mortar cannon and stick to the right side. Before you get to the grave yard, explore the ruins at the top of the hill. Run under the archway here and turn around to find a Gnome stuck to it.

Now, make your way through the graveyard. On the far side you'll come to a series of trenches. Do not enter the trenches. Instead, hang a left and enter the spooky gate that leads to Sunset House. Here's you can find some easy Silver Keys among other treasures.